With no backup immediately available, the officer climbed into his squad car, drove a mile to Walgreens for Q-Tips and distilled water, returned to the scene and swabbed for evidence as best he could.

After years of hiring new police officers and support staff, Cathedral City has in recent tough times elected to scale back non-officer staffing and, in some cases, taken police off the streets. The valley’s other eight cities and Riverside County also are cutting or weighing cuts to police services while balancing budgets decimated by the recession, Gov. Jerry Brown’s raid on redevelopment funds and a decade when overly optimistic city councils expanded local bureaucracies.

To balance the books, Cathedral City is selling two police dogs it can’t afford to train and outfit. La Quinta closed two substations. Palm Springs shuttered a jail and froze four sworn-officer positions. Indio froze three officer jobs and pulled officers off a regional gang task force — less than two years after spearheading Eastern Encore, the largest anti-gang sweep in Riverside County history.

Riverside County Sheriff Stanley Sniff Jr. threatened to abolish gang and sex offender task forces, which would have crippled collaborations that have been proven to stop violent crime, but take months or years to produce results. Instead, police increasingly respond to the call of the moment.

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It’s happening at the worst possible time.

Since January, Riverside County has released more than 4,000 inmates due to overcrowding and Gov. Brown’s push to shift cost burdens – and supervision – to local jurisdictions. The state Legislature now requires counties to jail most felons and to oversee their parole. Sheriff Sniff projects a total of 6,000 inmates will be released by December, before their sentences expire, onto the streets of Riverside County.

To understand the compounding pressure of more criminals and fewer police, The Desert Sun launched a project to map crime trends across the Coachella Valley. Working with the desert’s five police agencies, we produced a first-of-its-kind database of every police call, searchable by location, date and category of crime.

The sheer number of calls is astounding.

Since July 2011, there were more than 300,000 crime reports — one every two minutes.

Not every call is legitimate, nor does every call lead to a report or an arrest, but those calls take time to log, to review and — if found to be valid — to investigate.

Just a sampling of the strains on the Cathedral City police show that from July 2011 to June 2012 the department fielded 564 vandalism and graffiti calls, 570 theft calls, 674 burglary reports, 383 reports of stolen vehicles, 196 grand theft reports, 71 robbery calls, 205 for battery, 50 assaults, 185 calls about gunfire, 26 shootings at dwellings or vehicles, four carjackings and two homicides or attempted homicides.

“In my career, I would say this is an unprecedented time,” said Cathedral City Police Chief Kevin Conner. “There’s a tremendous amount of strain on these guys out there — and I’m coming to the realization that this may actually be the new norm that we’ve got to adjust to.”

In a six-month project, The Desert Sun reviewed City Hall budgets, police staffing, crime statistics and every single police call during the past 2½years. We interviewed residents, city leaders, police chiefs and officers.

Among our findings:

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• Since January 2010, police in the Coachella Valley have fielded 850,000 calls. In 9,424 of those, police responded to a report of a violent crime — one every 2.5 hours. Over that same period, valley police received 2,085 calls about a sex crime.

• While shootings and robberies receive high-profile attention, police resources are stretched thin by the enormous number of lower-threshold calls. Since January 2010, police have received 156,000 traffic calls (including traffic stops, crashes, DUIs and parking violations); 113,000 calls about a general disturbance or suspicious circumstance; and 52,529 calls about a theft.

• Seven out of eight cities have fewer officers than the national average of 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents. Palm Springs has 2 officers per 1,000 full-time residents. The ninth city, Indian Wells, isn’t counted due to its smaller population.

• Valley cities spend more than $107 million on law enforcement — a 1 percent drop from five years ago. Meanwhile, the Coachella Valley’s population grew 39 percent between 2000 and 2011 — from 255,800 people to 355,600 people in the nine valley cities.

• Seven of the nine police departments made cuts at least once since the fiscal year that began July 2008.

Feeling vulnerable

On Aug. 2, Sandra Casinelli of Desert Hot Springs drove home from an overnight trip with her grandchildren and found a window broken. Small shards of glass were scattered across her dining room table.

It was the one time she forgot to set her home alarm.

A guest bedroom desk had been ransacked. Items in closets were strewn haphazardly across the carpet.

“I feel so vulnerable right now,” Casinelli said.

Casinelli’s shock turned into frustration after several 911 calls and several hours produced no police officer. A dispatcher told her “there were other pressing things.”

At 5 p.m. — nearly six hours after her first report — an officer arrived. Casinelli calmed down after speaking with someone from the department about the delays.

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It turns out, Casinelli was lucky.

In an increasing number of cities, residents who return home to find their house broken into are asked to boot up their computer and fill out a report online.

No officer arrives on scene. No evidence lab shows up.

In Indio, Cathedral City and Palm Springs, residents are asked to fill out an online form for “past burglaries.”

“Back in the day, we used to take reports on those kinds of things,” Palm Springs police Sgt. Mike Kovaleff said. “From a customer service standpoint, it’s not really the way we want to do things, but it’s one of those necessities. We have to prioritize.”

Cause for concern

A paradise in the desert, where Bob Hope and Barry Manilow settled and presidents Gerald Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower vacationed or moved, the Coachella Valley has only recently battled more pervasive criminal elements.

Like virtually every corner of the United States, crime rates have been falling for two decades. The most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Justice date to 2010 and support a conclusion that overall crime is on a downward arc.

But over the past six months — as police agencies have pulled out of task forces and frozen jobs — some alarming trends have emerged.

In Cathedral City, robberies jumped 32 percent, and vehicle thefts were up about 28 percent in the first six months of this year compared to last year, said Chief Conner.

The city has witnessed “a dramatic spike in street robberies,” brazen crooks grabbing wallets or cell phones, often at knifepoint, Conner said.

Mike Zoll, 41, of Cathedral City worries crime could drive away tourists and other customers.

Zoll, who owns Frickelburgers, has noticed fewer police officers stopping into his restaurant, and he can’t remember the last time he saw a squad car drive by.

“You see that authoritative figure, you feel safer knowing that that person has dedicated their career to helping people. You think about that as a business or just a resident,” he said.

It’s no different across Riverside County.

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“The gross (crime rate) numbers are still dropping, but the drop size is getting smaller and smaller,” said Sniff. “I think, in some cases, it’s not only bottoming out, we’re seeing some places in the county where we’re actually seeing surges.”

Riverside County is planning to increase the number of deputies in areas like Mecca and Thermal — but it will take more than a year to hire and train those deputies, the sheriff said.

“It will be a while before we dig ourselves out, and this next year will be tense,” Sniff said.

In Palm Desert — a city that contracts with the county sheriff — overall crime has dropped, but in June 2011, the daylight armed robbery of a jewelry store on El Paseo Drive sent waves of fear through the business community.

And in Palm Springs, the police department closes its lobby every Friday as 37 non-sworn employees continue a two-year furlough.

After the city closed its jail, Palm Springs Police Chief Al Franz hired two young men to drive inmates to jail rather than take an officer off patrol for the hour roundtrip.

“Until things change, we’re going to be constantly behind the curve,” Franz said. “And trying to get ahead of it is going to be tough.”

Less support on street

A month ago, Cathedral City police Officer Nick Chapman climbed into his squad car for his 12-hour shift. He pulled up next to another officer’s car in the parking lot, and they rolled down their windows to compare notes.

The department recently cut its crime analyst. The officers don’t have time for their usual briefing, where all officers starting duty convene to share notes on the hotspots for crime or the whereabouts of suspected criminals.

"The overlapping shifts will tell you what's going on, but other than that it's just guessing," Chapman said.

Within minutes, Chapman was called to a clothing store about possible thieves. On his next stop, he called paramedics for a woman passed out on rocks and booked her into jail to sober up.

He swept residential streets with his spotlight to search for bullet casings after reports of gunshots fired, and he cruised through parking lots targeted by vandals.

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"We are more like a fire department right now, putting out fires," Chapman said.

Meanwhile Chapman’s paperwork piled up. He still had at least five reports to fill out before they could be passed to a sergeant and, eventually, to prosecutors.

“It’s really hard on law enforcement right now to do their jobs effectively,” Chapman said. “It’s kind of a perfect storm with the mandated releases from prison, the economy being down the way it is, and the cities being cut.”

A 16-year veteran of the department, Chapman has logged two stints as a homicide detective and spent the last two years working with the narcotics task force.

The 43-year-old was sent back to patrol in June after 14 employees, including four officers, were laid off.

“It’s been really scary in the last six months with what’s been going on,” Chapman said.

Cathedral City is one of two cities that scaled back its police budget this year. Palm Desert dropped just slightly, from $16.5 million to $16.4 million — 38.3 percent of its budget down to 36.8 percent.

Riverside County, too, scaled back. It now has 0.81 deputies per 1,000 residents in unincorporated areas — and will dip to 0.75 deputies. That’s less than half the national average.

“That’s pretty much bare bones. That’s nothing other than responding to calls. The only thing saving us right now is those specialized teams that are overlapping,” Sniff said.

Cathedral City police are budgeted to spend $12.8 million this year, a $1.5 million drop from last year. Due to the 11 percent cut, the department eliminated its traffic division, its special enforcement teams — including the K9 units — and most of its task force officers.

"I'm not singing just the Cathedral City blues. It's happening to everybody," Chapman added. "We are not out here crying and whining about it. We are not. We just need what it takes."

Task forces cut

It was an otherwise ordinary Tuesday morning when 1,000 law enforcement officers from across the state stormed the streets of Indio and its nearby cities.

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They surprised people in nearly 500 homes and businesses as part of the December 2010 parole sweep known as Eastern Encore.

Less than two years later, Indio police don’t even take part in the Coachella Valley Gang and Violent Crime Task Force.

One officer remains on the auto theft task force, a move Chief Richard Twiss has made because that task force is based within Indio city limits.

With fewer resources to go around, Twiss said he could not justify sending an Indio police officer to work outside the city, even if it means pooling resources.

“I think that’s what the public would expect, that we would first make sure that we were taking care of our core functions here and then evaluate those opportunities as they come up,” said Twiss, who once served as a task force commander with the state Department of Justice.

The regional task forces — often with specific targets of gangs, narcotics or violent crime — are critical for sharing information, particularly in a small region like the Coachella Valley, said Franz, the Palm Springs police chief. His officers take part in the regional efforts.

“How could that be a burden? I’m giving up one officer, but I’m getting 10,” Franz said.

But most chiefs say they cannot afford the regional task forces anymore.

The state Department of Justice said in November it would stop participating in most of its 52 task forces designed to combat gang and drug trafficking. It has money to continue with only 18 task forces.

Cathedral City police, too, have declined to participate in most task forces, leaving one officer on the gang task force only because it’s paid for by a federal grant.

Conner, the Cathedral City chief, laments their absence from task forces. He calls the regional efforts critical to combating problem areas.

“We were able to get 8 to 10 police officers to assist our normal patrol officers to saturate those areas to assist us in kind of holding down that type of crime,” Conner said. “Although it’s important to keep your resources at home when you can, once you can break somebody loose, it’s a tremendous benefit.”

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Protected, preserved

The phone rings unanswered at Desert Hot Springs City Hall. Potential business owners sit idly for their business licenses to be issued, and residents drive over potholes while repairs languish.

The lawns at the park are cut a few times a month, and City Hall closes on Fridays.

The city has slashed its budgets in virtually every single department to protect its police department funding — cutting from its peak of 122 employees down to 65 now.

Meanwhile, the city has pumped up its patrols from 15 officers to 34.

Across the valley, cities have tried to protect their police department budgets. They’ve slashed everywhere else in City Hall first.

Desert Hot Springs embodies the quest to protect public safety above all other government functions. Today, it is the only valley city to spend more than half of its budget — 51.8 percent — on police.

“Other cities don’t have the crime problem that I do, that this city does,” City Manager Rick Daniels said.

Marilyn Heidrick, 77, moved to the city about 16 years ago. She recalls friends in Indio worried they would need to wear a bullet-proof vest to drive into Desert Hot Springs.

“When we first moved here, people were very concerned about crime getting out of control,” she said. “I think the public just wouldn’t rest with the way things were.”

Residents demanded putting safety above all else, and police now respond more quickly than they used to, Heidrick said.

“I think people in this town are not willing to let go of public safety,” she said. “If you can’t live in a community without looking over your shoulder to see who’s following you, that’s not a good way.”

Desert Hot Springs has become “inadequate in every other city function” to provide that safety, Daniels said: “We have cut. We’ve privatized. We’re automated. We’ve eliminated.

“We have delays in responding to requests and in street repairs. Those could have — should have — been fixed five or six years ago,” he continued. “Instead, we put the discretionary money into police.”

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The five Coachella Valley cities that contract with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for police services have not made many notable cuts, the sheriff said.

But he’s watched the cities make “a series of forced choices” to afford police protection. Even Rancho Mirage, which has stashed away more of its budget in reserves than most valley cities, has cut from 90 employees down to 73.

“I think that’s going to be a new normal for quite a while,” Sniff said. “Until revenues pick up in government — someday, somehow, when the economy turns around — that’s going to be a tough one.”

With limited people to do the job, cities have taken to more strategic ways to fight crime.

Desert Hot Springs installed more than 30 cameras in the city and implemented a community oriented policing strategy, which partners police with neighbors in hopes of increasing community relations.

The city has twice turned to voters to approve public safety taxes, and Daniels would consider recommending a ballot initiative again before laying off his staff.

“If at the end of the day all we have left is public safety, then that’s where the city needs to go,” Daniels said. “First and foremost, people need to be secure in their home.”